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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) released the following statement after the Obama administration chose not to defend U.S. law pertaining to Cuba at the United Nations:

“Today the Obama administration turned its back on U.S. law and the suffering Cuban people.  Worse yet – on a world stage – the administration allowed the Cuban regime to claim moral equivalence between its brutal rule and our democracy.  This is wrong, and it undermines Cubans fighting for basic freedoms. 

“The fact is, under President Obama’s policies these past two years, the Castro regime’s human rights abuses have only worsened.  Democracy advocates have been attacked.  Thousands have been jailed because of their beliefs.  And the government continues to pocket as much as 95 percent of worker salaries at foreign-owned resorts.  Cubans are paid in funny money, if at all.

“Existing law states that the economic embargo of Cuba will remain until there’s a government in Cuba that releases political prisoners and allows for free and fair elections.  The White House has an obligation to uphold and defend the law – whether it likes it or not.” 

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